Psalms and Psalters in the Manuscript Fragments Preserved in the Abbey
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ISSN 2624-9340 Fragmentology A Journal for the Study of Medieval Manuscript Fragments Volume I, 2018 Editorial: Fragments and Fragmentology 1–5 Articles Reconstructing Burnt Anglo-Saxon Fragments in the Cotton Collection at the British Library 7–37 Andrew Dunning, Alison Hudson, and Christina Duffy Psalms and Psalters in the Manuscript Fragments Preserved in the Abbey Library of Sankt Gallen 39–63 María Adelaida Andrés Sanz A Seventeenth-Century Treasure Hunter in the Rubble of a Ninth-Century Library: Gathering Fragments and the History of Libraries 65–81 Pierre Chambert-Protat Manuscript Fragments in the University Library, Leipzig: Types and Cataloguing Patterns 83–110 Ivana Dobcheva and Christoph Mackert In-situ manuscript fragments in the incunables of the Bodleian Library, Oxford: A Fragmentarium Case Study 111–120 Ruth Mullett Fragments and Fakes: The Arbor consanguinitatis of the Fondation Martin Bodmer and a Contemporary Forgery 121–153 William Duba and Christoph Flüeler Indices Index of Manuscripts 155–162 Fragmentology I (2018). Editors: Christoph Flüeler (Fribourg), William Duba (Fribourg) | Book Review Editor: Veronika Drescher (Fribourg/Paris) | Editorial Board: Lisa Fagin Davis, (Cam- bridge, MA), Christoph Egger (Vienna), Thomas Falmagne (Frankfurt), Scott Gwara (Columbia, SC), Nicholas Herman (Philadelphia), Christoph Mackert (Leipzig), Marilena Maniaci (Cassino), Stefan Morent (Tübingen), Åslaug Ommundsen (Bergen), Nigel Palmer (Oxford). Editorial Address: Fragmentology, University of Fribourg, Rue de l’Hôpital 4, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. [email protected] Produced with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Stavros Niar- chos Foundation, and the Zeno Karl Schindler Foundation. Fragmentology I (2018), DOI: 10.24446/2nbp Psalms and Psalters in the Manuscript Fragments Preserved in the Abbey Library of Sankt Gallen María Adelaida Andrés Sanz,* Universidad de Salamanca [email protected] Abstract: This study focuses on three series of manuscript fragments dating from the seventh to the tenth century where passages of the Psalter were copied. Most of the fragments are currently preserved at the Library Abbey of Sankt Gallen, and their digital reproductions are available on Fragmentarium: Cod. Sang. 1395 II, pp. 336-361 [F-4b1o]; Cod. Sang. 1395 III, pp. 368-391 [F-jo7w]; and Cod. Sang. 1397 V, pp. 1-12, 37-42 [F-i8qo]. These fragments provide the basis for identification of the primary characteristics of their original codices as well as information on the texts they transmit: their content, the version of the Psalter used, marginal notes, and the use of the manuscripts after they were copied. Likewise, the subsequent reuse of these manuscripts, once transformed into fragmentary material, is reconstructed, specifically concerning their dispersal in several libraries, being bound in host volumes, evidence from offsets, and traces of missing fragments. This study leads to some basic methodological conclusions on how to deal with collections of fragments, emphasizing the vast and fruitful research opportunity presented by such collections, especially the collection of manuscript fragments at the Library Abbey of Sankt Gallen. Keywords: Sankt Gallen Stiftsbibliothek, Manuscript Fragments, Psalters, Cod. Sang. 1395, Cod. Sang. 1396, Cod. Sang. 1397, Cod. Sang. 1938 1. Introduction “Colligite quae superaverunt fragmenta ne pereant” is the Latin Vulgate version of the words that, according to St. John the Evangelist, Jesus spoke to his disciples after the multiplication of the loaves (Jn 6,12). And his disciples filled twelve baskets with fragments of the five barley loaves. Five and a half centuries after John wrote these words, Isidore of Seville noted the following in his Etymologiae: “crusta superficies panis; ipsa et fragmenta, quia diuiditur, ut fracta” (etym. 20,1,181). Based on a quotation from the Gospels, and following a * This article has been written within the framework of the research project “Psalms and Psalters in the Manuscript Fragments at the Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen” (2016 SNSF Grant ID 169600). Fragmentology I (2018), 39–63, DOI: 10.24446/ugx4 40 María Adelaida Andrés Sanz process of metonymy, fragmentum became a polysemic word in Isidore of Se- ville’s early medieval Latin. Fragmentum, fragmenta: Bread and piece. When we consider this polysemy and the Gospel text, we should not be surprised that the Benedictine monk Alban Dold chose the motto “Colligere fragmenta ne pereant” to describe his endeavour to collect the highest possible number of fragments of ancient versions of the Latin Bible.2 The paths of those scholars that specialise in the study of the Latin Bible, the works of Isidore of Seville, and manuscript fragments all lead (sooner or later) to the Abbey Library of St. Gallen, because of its unique wealth of documents. Not only does it have one of the most valuable collections of biblical codices prior to the eleventh century and a huge amount of copies of Isidorian works, but its wealth of manuscript fragments also preserves pages of the Latin Bible written in the fifth century, as well as one of the oldest witnesses to theEtymologiae known to us: a fragment written in the mid seventh century.3 The case study presented here consisted in the codicological, palaeographical, critical and philological study of several manuscript fragments of Latin psalms and psalters preserved in the Abbey Library of St. Gallen. It originally involved It was conceived and developed as a case study within the Fragmentarium project. I would like to thank all the people and institutions I have dealt with through this research, most specially the members of the Fragmentarium project: its director, Prof. Dr. Christoph Flüeler, as well as Dr. William Duba and Mag. Veronika Drescher, who kindly encouraged the development of this work; I should also very warmly thank all the library staff at St. Gallen Stiftsbibliothek: Dr. Cornel Dora and Dr. Franziska Schnoor in the first place, but also Drs. Karl Schmuki and Philipp Lenz, Mag. Kathrin Hug and Ms. Prisca Brülisauer: they all helped me in very different ways while researching in situ and afterwards; and finally, I would also like to express my gratitude to the members of the Canton’s Catholic administration at St. Gallen, whose care and support made my time both in the library itself and at St. Gallen a true pleasure. 1 Cf. Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi Etymologiarum siue Originum libri XX, W.M. Lindsay, Oxford, 1911. 2 See the series Texte und Arbeiten. “Colligere fragmenta” was also chosen by Bonifatius Fischer and Virgil Fiala as part of the title in the book offered to Dold by his disciples and colleagues in 1952: Colligere fragmenta. Festschrift Alban Dold zum 70. Geburtstag am 7.7.1952, ed. B. Fischer and V. Fiala, Beuron 1952. 3 A complete and useful summary about the biblical codices written or preserved at St. Gallen can be found in the exhibition catalogue Im Anfang war das Wort. Die Bibel im Kloster St. Gallen, St. Gallen 2012. The Vetus Latina fragments dating from the fifth century received a facsimile edition and commentary in 2012: R. Gamper, P. Lenz, A. Nievergelt, P. Erhard, and E. Schulz-Flügel, Die Vetus Latina-Fragmente aus dem Kloster St. Gallen, Dietikon-Zürich 2012. On the Isidorian fragment, see C. Dora, “Eine irische Handschriftenreliquie – Isidor-Fragment aus dem 7. Jahrhundert”, in Cimellia Sangallensia, ed. K. Schmuki, P. Ochsenbein, and C. Dora, St. Gallen 2000, 20–21, bibliographical references on pp. 214–215; and more recently P. Lenz, “Insulare Schriften” in Im Paradies des Alphabets. Die Entwicklung der lateinischen Schrift, ed. C. Dora, St. Gallen 2016, 32–41, at 34–35. Digital reproductions of most of these manuscripts can be found on “e-codices – Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland” (https:// www.e-codices.unifr.ch). http://fragmentology.ms/issues/1-2018/psalms-and-psalters/ Psalms and Psalters 41 Isidore of Seville’s works and his hypothetical revision or ‘edition’ of the Latin Psalter.4 In fact, as a study that stems from an interest in determining whether or not Isidore of Seville prepared a revision of the Latin Psalter, this case study focused on the location, examination and description of some fragments of the Latin Psalter preserved in the Abbey Library of St. Gallen. Before describing the case study itself and some of its results, we need to pro- vide two brief introductions: we are going to devote a few lines to contextualising the Book of Psalms at the Abbey of St. Gallen during the Early Middle Ages, and briefly cover the history of the collection of fragments now housed in its library. 1.1 The Psalms at St. Gallen We are all quite familiar with the basic uses of the Psalter in the Latin Early Middle Ages in Western Europe: firstly, it was an essential part of community liturgy; furthermore, it very soon became a basic text for individual or private worship; thirdly, its text played a key role as teaching material (simply consider Charlemagne’s Admonitio Generalis), and last but not least, the study and analysis of the text and the actual meaning of the psalms were addressed in scholarly and exegetic studies. The collection of the library at St. Gallen provides evidence of all these aspects of the Book of Psalms. Nevertheless, early medieval manuscripts attest above all to its liturgical and scholarly-exegetic use. An example of liturgical use involves the elaborate psalters held or copied in St. Gallen during the ninth century: the Folchart Psalter (Cod. Sang. 23, written between 872 and 883), the Golden Psalter (Cod. Sang. 22, written sortly before the end of the ninth century), another one now kept at the Vadiana Cantonal Library, written some decades prior to those two (Sankt Gallen, Kantonsbibliothek St. Gallen, Vadianische Sammlung 292). Concerning the study of the psalms and biblical texts in a community of scholars and theologians, today we find such diverse texts as the version of the Hebrew Psalter in the Hartmut Bible (Cod.